


Echoes

by beeezie



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Battle of Hogwarts, Frenemies, Post-Hogwarts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-23
Updated: 2016-12-23
Packaged: 2018-09-11 06:55:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8964229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beeezie/pseuds/beeezie
Summary: Draco Malfoy returns to Hogwarts to deal with some unresolved baggage.





	

Every battle has a legacy.

Even years after the battle has been won (or lost) and the casualties have been buried, a shadow of it remains. It isn't quite a ghost - after all, a ghost is the imprint of a person, not an event - but it's not so far off from that, either. You can feel the energy - feel that something important has taken place.

The dust had long since settled when Draco Malfoy returned to Hogwarts.

He didn't come back as a student, of course. He'd known better than that. The kids who'd sympathized with the Dark Lord still existed, and now they looked at him with disgust and suspicion rather than barely-veiled awe. And those who'd hated the Dark Lord and the Carrows, of course, saw him as an opportunistic traitor with no principles.

He supposed that was true, in some ways, and he certainly wasn't going to give them the privilege of knowing his innermost thoughts to correct the ways in which it wasn't.

[[MORE]]

It took him a long time to work up the nerve to return to the grounds. He'd had his period of Ministry-imposed house arrest - in his own home, of course, he'd left his parents' manor shortly after the war and never looked back - and then self-imposed seclusion, as well as the awkward, uncomfortable period of adjustment to the outside world and the suspicion many aimed his way.

But now he was getting married, and it seemed like it was time to deal with his unfinished business.

So he went back during the summer, when no one was likely to be around.

When he stepped onto the grounds, it was the bad memories that took hold first. Memories of skulking in shadows and hiding from the other students, trying to complete a mission he'd gradually come to understand that he did not have the stomach for.

He'd opened up to Moaning Myrtle, for Merlin's sake. That was the epitome of desperation.

He also remembered his seventh year. He remembered other students, sympathizers to the Dark Lord, looking to him for guidance when all he wanted to do was be left alone.

They were not good memories.

"Malfoy."

Draco turned toward the voice and barely stopped himself from sighing. "Potter."

Just his luck.

"Mind if I walk with you?"

Draco shrugged. He wasn't sure what else he could say.

They wandered toward the lake without speaking. As they stood there looking across the water, Potter said, "I heard you've gotten engaged."

"Yeah."

"Congratulations."

"You, too."

Potter glanced at him. "Have you been back here since... since that day?"

Draco shook his head. "I suppose you were here constantly."

Potter let out a bark of laughter. "It took me two years to step back onto the grounds once we left." Draco's surprise must have shown on his face, because Potter shrugged. "Too many memories."

"Yeah." Draco sighed. "Yeah. There are."

Potter cleared his throat. "Er - look. I - um."

"Yes?"

Potter made a face. "I'm no good at this. But I just wanted to say I know you didn't like it."

"I know you know." Both Potter and Granger had testified on his behalf during the Ministry inquest. He still wasn't sure why. He hadn't been a very nice person to either of them, and he wasn't sure he'd have put himself out like that for them.

"No, I mean thanks."

"For what? It's not like I did anything."

Potter shrugged. "You tried to lie for me."

"I didn't do a very good job."

"But you did. And Hermione told me what you did during the battle."

Draco had never been sure how he felt about that. He'd literally run straight into Granger after the fighting had broken out again, just before the end, and as he started to say the stunning spell, it occurred to him to wonder why he was trying to stun rather than kill. And then, before he finished the spell, he decided that he didn't really even want to stun her at all.

So he'd stunned Amycus Carrow instead, who'd been about the cast the killing curse at Granger. Then he'd gone over to Carrow's stunned body and kicked him in the stomach.

"I don't know why I did it," he said after a minute. "I don't."

Potter shrugged. "Yeah, well. You did." He glanced up toward the castle. "I have to talk to Neville about something. I..." He made a face. "Good luck, Malfoy."

"Good luck, Potter."

Draco watched Potter started toward the castle. It was funny, in a way - the war had gone a long way toward dissipating the tension and disgust the two men had shared for each other as boys. It had fractured many relationships, but maybe it had made this one just a little bit better.

Maybe it had done that with a lot of his classmates. He was noticing more reserved friendliness lately, and he couldn't help but think that it would have been a different story for some of the other Slytherins - the ones who had bought into the Dark Lord's plans without hesitation.

They were fools.

He sat down to meditate on his time at Hogwarts. The baggage was already feeling a little lighter.


End file.
